crisis in Wales as role hit numbers

“It’s a tough profession to go into,” Councillor Deborah Davies, Welsh Local Government Association deputy spokesperson for education and deputy leader of Newport council

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told the committee. “Children are entering school with greater needs.

“Twenty years ago, the long school holidays were an attractive feature, but no longer. It’s not pay but the difficulties of the job which are creating problems in recruitment attraction.”

Dr Lowri Brown, vice-chair of the Association of Directors of Education in Wales and chief education officer at Conwy council, said it is a “really challenging time” to be a teacher and there were multiple factors putting people off joining or leading them to leave the profession.

She said she knew from her job that the new pressures and perception of teaching were “absolute reality”.

“Teaching is generally and currently perceived as a challenging profession, which is influencing people considering it.

“It is seen as a quite high-stress, intense job with significant workload and less flexibility to other roles.

“Now things have got more challenging in recent years. I have firsthand experience that this is the reality.